1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of computer systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to the art of coupling a processor and add-on cards to a motherboard of a computer system.
2. Background Information
Microprocessor based personal computers are known in the art, including personal computers employing low profile form factors. Conventional low profile personal computers employ a riser card to facilitate coupling of an add-on card to a motherboard. The add-on card and the motherboard occupy parallel planes (as oppose to orthogonal planes in the case of the AT form factor), to provide the low profile. [Note that the AT form factor includes the desktop as well as the tower variation, where one is basically a 90 degree rotation of the other.] Conventional low profile personal computers suffer from a number of disadvantages. One of these disadvantages is the inability to place high performance components on the add-on cards, as the distance to the motherboard is too far to meet the signal requirements of the high performance components. An example of such high performance component is a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) agent. Thus, an alternate approach that can achieves the low profile and at the same time accommodates the signal requirements of high performance components is desired.
Additionally, low profile personal computers traditionally have employed zero insertion force (ZIF) sockets to couple processors to the motherboards. Historically, the manner in which processors are coupled to the motherboards has not been an issue that needs to be addressed in achieving low profile, as the processors generally have a very low profile. However, recent advances in microprocessor have led to certain high performance microprocessors to employ a "cartridge" approach to packaging, and single edge card connector (SECC) technology to connect the processor packages to the motherboards. Because of the high performance nature of these processors, typically heat sinks with substantial masses have to be employed to dissipate the heat generated by these processors. The first generation SECC processor packages are coupled to the motherboards with the two components occupying orthogonal planes, as a result constraining the low profile that can be achieved. Thus, a new non-orthogonal approach to coupling these new high performance SECC processor packages and motherboards is desired.